Funding boost for energy efficient use of heat generated by west London’s waste
The Authority is to benefit from a share of £2.4 million of grant funding to support the development of energy efficient heating projects.
We have been awarded the funding through the Government’s Heat Networks Delivery Unit (HNDU) grant programme following a successful combined bid alongside SITA UK Ltd, South Gloucestershire and Bristol City Council. We were jointly awarded £98,000 in funding which, together with matched funding of £49,000, will make the total amount available £147,000.
The majority of the funding will be used to investigate the potential for development of a heat network in the Avonmouth-Severnside enterprise area which will take heat captured from treatment of our waste at the SITA Severnside Energy Recovery Centre and distribute it via insulated pipes to local businesses. Heat generated at the facility is a low carbon source of energy which would otherwise be lost to the atmosphere. Using the waste heat will improve the carbon performance of the SERC plant, helping to meet the Mayor of London’s Carbon Intensity Floor target. The SERC facility will be up and running in 2016.
A portion of the funding will also go towards a wider network mapping exercise to look at the feasibility of expanding the heat network to other local areas, and will explore options for a heat network pipeline to run from Avonmouth-Severnside to South Gloucestershire’s urban areas and on to the centre of Bristol. Such a scheme would take advantage of the large volumes of heat currently being generated by power plants and commercial processes in Avonmouth-Severnside.
Ours is one of 32 successful bids announced in the third round of Government funding. A fourth round of HNDU funding will open to local authorities in England and Wales on 16 October.
